Monday, November 26, 2012

A Song of Ice and Liar

It won't be long before "Retribution", the winter expansion, changes the bounty system and clears away old bounties. You may recall a story from last month, when Agent Tubrug1 found himself with a 600 million isk bounty on his head--perhaps the largest "genuine" bounty ever placed on someone through the broken bounty system.

Tubrug1 used an alt to collect it the next day. Richer from the experience, Tubrug1 was nevertheless left with a most puzzling mystery: Who put the bounty on him? It was time to haul in the usual suspects.

Capt Lynch is a man who needs no introduction. Though others would gladly vie for the title, Capt is perhaps the most well-known opponent of the New Order. What that says about the resistance, I leave for the reader to judge.

Agent Tubrug1 and I interrogated Capt in a private channel. He protested his innocence, and sounded credible enough.

Tubrug1 played "bad cop", pressuring Capt to confess. Smooth as you please, Capt said he would be happy to provide screenshots of his wallet. He would also show us his login screen, to prove he had no alts.

Capt sent us the screenshots. He was a cool customer, and we couldn't hold him in a private convo indefinitely. If there was nothing incriminating in the screenshots, we would have to let him walk.

Tubrug1 hit paydirt: In the corner of the screenshot, he noticed that Capt had me watchlisted and set to negative standings!

Capt's calm demeanor cracked for the first time. He was taken completely by surprise.

Capt backpedaled furiously, but it was too late. Tubrug1 was on the scent.

Like a dog with a bone, Tubrug1 wouldn't let go. He would make space detective for this!

Following Tubrug1's instructions, Capt created a new API so that we could have a look at his financial transactions. In addition, Tubrug1 requested that the API allow us to read Capt's EVEmails. Capt insisted there was nothing to be found in his EVEmails, but he enabled that option anyway.

As Capt waited nervously for a verdict, Agents of the New Order began sifting through all the new intel. The first thing that jumped out at us was Capt's EVEmail to CCP karkur, one of EVE's programmers:

I apologise for this but I have tried everything else. I want to report how a loophole is beign turned into an exploit and a cheat in eve. You almost certainly know of the dodge to avoid wardecs by closing a corp...however, one person is using this dodge to avoid EVERY wardec as well as use it to intimidate players with his so-called 'invincibility'.

The players name is James 315 and according to his blog, he doesn;t even TRY to hide the fact that he uses this exploit. He runs a single man corp and ALWAYS closes it when he gets wardecced by angry players opposing his so-called New Order (info here www.minerbumping.com )

While I do understand that EVE is a sandbox, I can also spot an exploit being taken advantage of when I see it. I am not asking you to ban this character...but please...I beg you, PLEASE do something about the unfair exploit he is using to protect himself from the consequences of his actions.

Sincerely

Capt Lynch

Please reply to this.

Though CCP usually do not reply to EVEmails, CCP karkur did--but that's a story for another day. A review of Capt's financial info cleared him of the whole bounty business. The EVEmails showed he was guilty of other crimes. A victory for the New Order Intelligence Agency (NOIA), the most powerful intelligence agency in highsec! Tubrug1 told Capt he would get back to him.

Capt neglected to delete the API, so the New Order continued to have access to his EVEmails. It was time to blow the lid off this whole "resistance" thing.

So, with the new information showing that Lynch joined the New Order under a false flag, to gather information as a double agent...that is what has convinced you that the New Order must now leave him alone or be liable for harassment? I'm sorry, you know we're talking about EVE here? Not PonyPower online.

I have to agree with those suggesting that Capt Lynch should feel grateful for the ballad? the saga? the tale that James 315 that graced him with. If it wasn't for the New Order, Capt Lynch would be a nobody just mining away semi-AFK in a completely shameless and mind-numbing fashion. After accumulating lots of pointless ISK he would one day get bored and unsubscribe, having done nothing of value or relevance in EVE.

James 315, like a guardian angel, has saved Capt Lynch from himself. He has given Capt Lynch meaning, purpose, a role to play and perhaps even immortality. In a few years time I'm sure retrospectives will be written on these events in the way that we all fondly remember Fanny the Bard and other heroes of old.

That should be the motto of the New Order: "Men, do you want to live forever?!"

The next time I see Capt Lynch I'm going to demand that he pay his respects to James 315, who is truly his Supreme Protector, and finally join the New Order. It will be a happy ending.

I don't have the time either. Ever since I started spending 7-8 hours a day going around to blogs and telling all the commenters that they had way too much time on their hands, my free time has just evaporated. I wonder where it went?

Possibility 1: You think that commenting on a blog about how the other commenters are wasting their time is itself wasting your time, but you went ahead and made the comment anyway. This is obviously hypocritical, and so I didn't address it.

Possibility 2: You think that commenting on a blog about how the other commenters are wasting their time is not a waste of time, and people should do it, but you don't usually take your own advice, although you did this one time. This is also hypocritical, as well as misleading, so I didn't address it.

Possibility 3: You think that commenting on a blog about how the other commenters are wasting their time commenting is not itself a waste of time, and you take your own advice and do it for multiple hours every day. This is the most consistent option, although it is still somewhat contradictory, and this was the possibility I addressed in my comment above, as an absurd take on your comment above. Thank you for inviting me to continue arguing in extremes,as that is the best and most appropriate way to make fun of nonsensical comments like yours :)

Aww, thank you for taking the time to view my profile. If you'd like to know, I worked from Freshman year through senior, got scholarships for being on the A Honor roll all four years, and got a quarterback scholarship. I now use the money I saved working through high school to attend college full-time.

What is it that you do again, Anonymous?

Also, girls I've been with like long hair, It's a good thing I'm not trying to bag you! :D

1. Morally unprincipled; shameless.2. Rejected by God and without hope of salvation.tr.v. rep·ro·bat·ed, rep·ro·bat·ing, rep·ro·bates1. To disapprove of; condemn.2. To abandon to eternal damnation. Used of God.

If you're going to google names to insult me with after stalking my profile, please use words that make sense given the context, that way, you look like less of a moron.

Nathanial attends college full time, doesn't know how to use an apostrophe or spell awfully. English is obviously not a subject that's being studied. His ilk are the future, and it looks bleak.http://i.imgur.com/iCVJQ.jpg

MMORPG, the RPG is important here, it means Role Playing Game, it's how the game is meant to be played, we just happen to be role playing a bunch of tax collectors who get paid in tears.

See? Told you he was a hipster. Recent highschool grad, using convulted words to express a higher thought ideal and complex thought processes instead of just sitting back and reading or ignoring the situation.

But no. You encourage an "extreme" discussion based on the merit of having too much time to roleplay nonsensically therefore dissolving your original point and in turn flip it to something YOU want to talk about.

And that makes you a hipster.

And now you are trying to get Audrik involved in a callingeachothernamesbecauseimmoreirightthereforeyourewrong match.

It's not a witch hunt when you discover genuine wrong doing. Keep in mind that Capt Lynch could have walked away from the New Order, but chose to keep interacting with them. He keeps making bad decision after bad decision. You can hardly blame others when they distrust him.

The sandbox analogy goes both ways - a miner is free to mine AFK, but a bumper is free to bump the miner, and request that the miner mine in accordance with the New Halaima Code of Conduct, with a valid Mining Permit.

This doesn't go against the "sandbox" nature of EVE - I believe it is the greatest example of "sandbox" gameplay to exist in High Security space for a long time.

If the miners so strongly disagree, then let them fight - and let them vindicate everything the New Order stands for: that the New Eden belongs to those willing to take action and fight for what they believe in, instead of whinging to CCP for bumping to generate aggression or for an anti-bump module.

You are attracting attention to yourself. If you can't figure out why this is happening, you are dumb. I have let things be, I just read the blog & violence freighters. You're the one that won't let it be. You never tried to work with me, I never twisted your words & I'm not really interested in your past actions.